I've been lurking, now decided to join! :)

newbies
(Little Miss Scare-All) #1

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to introduce myself after lurking for the past week. I decided to join because you all seem like a good group with some great experiences, info, tips and stories to share.

My name is Dena, I’m 36, and have been overweight forever, and if there’s such a thing as past lives, I was probably fat there, too lol. Actually, I don’t believe at all in past lives, but that fact would have ruined my joke -_-

As far back as I could remember, I had an eating disorder. I come from a family, whom I love dearly, but they’re very superficial. They all have eating disorders themselves, but never have been overweight. I’m literally the only fat person in the family. My weight was always a topic of conversation, mostly behind my back. I’d end up finding out somehow, and hating myself because I felt so different. As a kid, I’d go to bed crying and wishing I could wake up thin. I’d cry because I felt I’d never be loved because I was chubby. I was kind of a mess lol.

I was always very physically active and great at sports, but my eating was so horrible that my body couldn’t possibly keep up with it. I went all through school, never had a boyfriend, never had a big group of friends, mostly because I was a miserable sod so very unhappy in my own skin.

Eventually, my binge eating turned into not eating at all, for an extended period of time. This was the only time in my life I was even near average weight for a female. I worked out like a maniac and ate like 200 cals a day. I’d eventually trigger a binge, then throw it up. I felt so out of control, but at least I wasn’t really that fat anymore, but I felt like ass ALL the time. My moods were so unstable that I started cutting and having suicidal tendencies. My family never knew of this, nor do they know even now of those times.

That kind of life was not sustainable, and I ended up gaining all the weight back, and then some. My lowest adult weight was 170. My highest adult weight in 2009 was 333lbs! Talk about blowing up lol!! Man, that’s crazy. I eventually got myself down to 230, which is where I am now, and have kept this off since 2010. I’ve been lower, but gained it back, then lost it, then gained it. I have not been able to break under 200 and it’s been driving me nuts.

I’ve tried every diet ever, I think. High carb, low carb, no carb, extended juice fasts, Weight Watchers, starvation, being “moderate” but still eating carbs in the form of brown rice. I stumbled across IF a few months ago, which really opened the doorway to a lot of interesting information for me.

I’m a giant nerd, and though I’m overweight, one of my wheelhouse topics of discussion is health, fitness and nutrition. I could talk about it for hours, and have, much to other people’s dismay lol. “Just please shut up about metabolic syndrome! Please just stop!”

Along with IF I kept seeing Keto being coupled with it. I was like mehhhhhhh keto shmeeto, I’m not doing that, I’m just going do IF alone. IF worked great for me, I jumped right into 20/4 and had no problem converting. I still ate carbs though. I wanted to drop weight, but I also became concerned with my insulin and my mental instability. I did it for a month, and nailed it for the most part.

I kept coming across Keto, like the universe was smacking me across the face like hey… hey… pay attention. I’d be watching YouTube documentaries about serial killers and an ad about Keto would come up. I’d look up some guided meditation, and 3903 Keto videos would pop up. Everywhere I looked, Keto kept coming up. So I said FINE!!! Let me look into this, and so I did. I took my time and learned the science behind it, listened to what many “professionals” were saying about it. I obviously got very confused because it’s a lot to take in, but I’ve always understood the concept of insulin resistance, which I obviously am.

I kept coming across people who not just dropped weight, but regulated their moods, dropped their BP, slept better–all things I’m a mess with. I figured I would commit myself to healing myself from the inside out. My insides have to be a shit-show. I used to be addicted to pills and drugs and have been off of this for a long time. Then I was drinking myself to death, and stopped that as well. Now I only socially drink, and I’m not very social, so there’s that lol.

I’ve started week 3 on Keto/IF this past Monday. I’m doing 20/4, OMAD. I had the Keto Flu like a muhfuh. I was having dreams of fatty meat, but in the dream the meat was rotten and I’d get nauseas and wake up. I wasn’t able to eat for 2 days straight lol. The headaches, the fatigue, the mood swings. But now I’m starting to level off a bit, though I’m still a little whacky.

Sorry for the longness of the post, and probably quasi-rambling. That’s me in a nutshell lol. I’m looking forward to meeting some nice, cool people on here as I’ve seen thus far. You guys have already given me such invaluable information and NSV’s were so great to read. Cuz at the end of the day, the weight loss is just the byproduct of living healthier and healing from the inside, out.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, if anyone actually did! :slight_smile:

Dena

(Doug) #2

Trolling or lurking? :wink:

Welcome, Dena. :slightly_smiling_face:

(Little Miss Scare-All) #3

Lmao I guess I should have said lurking, huh?? Trolling has a negative connotation. That’s what I get for posting from work :smiling_imp:

(Empress of the Unexpected) #4

Welcome! I loved your post. You have come to the right place!

(The amazing autoimmune 🦄) #5

Welcome.

I can relate to so much of your post.

(Jessica) #6

Welcome! I don’t have your history but kind of came to keto in a similar way, kicking and screaming but not able to ignore it anymore.

(Doug) #7

:smile: Heck - I was hoping to hear a sordid tale of a masked troll riding high… :stuck_out_tongue:

At work here too…

(Little Miss Scare-All) #8

lmao I wonder what kind of mask a troll would wear. A human face?

I see we’re both very productive lol

#9

Good luck. make sure to keep your electrolytes up to feel normal, or better then normal.

#10

just replying with hugs and saying I wish you the best!! I have read so much about keto helps with eating disorders. My daughter is bulimic, addicted to sugar, but afraid of calories… and I would love for her to try keto but she’s 17 , so she’s young and illogical, yet too old for me to force her. (We’re seeking professional help, but…)

(Charlotte) #11

Welcome! If you lived in Washington I’d make you my BFF. lol You’re funny and you have taken your negative life experiences and turned things around. I admire the hell out of that! My biggest struggle with starting keto was overthinking it and getting my self into a spiral of stress. Just remember to keep it simple. When I started I was close to the same stats as you and I’ve been keto for only 3 months and am still learning but have been doing well. It can be frustrating in the beginning but persistence can pay off.

Welcome again!

(Little Miss Scare-All) #12

I’m sort of there at the moment lol. Total Carbs vs Net Carbs. Someone posted a link of Dr. Westmans’s Page 4 food list. He goes by 20 total carbs, net included in that total. 2 cups of salad greens a day he says. Dr. Berg says at least 7, because the leafy greens help support the liver to process all the fat. Dr. Berg says on his Keto on Steroids video that we should stay below 60 (depending on your size) grams of protein because it will spike insulin. And have 55-75g of fat, but no less than 50g per day.

I read on Dr. Westman’s list that we can eat as much meat as we can stomach, but he limits servings of other fats.

It can be all so confusing. Any thoughts??

(Cindy) #13

Dr. Berg is a chiropractor. Dr. Westman is a medical doctor who has practiced 20+ years, treats patients in a clinical setting, plus is a researcher.

I don’t have anything against chiropractors and I think people can educate themselves on almost anything. But seeing and working with patients in an obesity clinic is, I think, a more valuable experience when saying how something works or doesn’t work. Dr. Berg, legally, can’t be a doctor in that sense.

Did that make sense? It’d be like comparing Dr. Berg to Dr. Fung in reference to fasting. Not to say that Dr. Berg isn’t very well educated, but if there’s a conflict of info, I’d listen to Dr. Fung first.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #14

Cindy,

Hey I like your line of thought. I was thinking a similar thing, myself. That’s a very good point that you made. It’s like I’m not hyper focused on the weight aspect here (though I do need to lose a good amount), but I just want to make sure I’m doing things the best way I can, to yield the best overall results.

TBH I was bashing my skull into the wall over Dr. Berg’s Keto on Steroids. My main problem is I could not, for the life of me, get the proper calories in for his ratios. I felt like I could build a rocket more easily. My kitchen looks like the rantings and calculations of a lunatic, papers everywhere with writing and combinations, trying to find a way to keep protein to X grams, and not go above X, and fat this many grams, but no more or less than this. I have an entire page of notes I wrote out about my meal for the day (OMAD I’m doing), and no matter how I played Jenga with the food, I couldn’t get it past 700 calories for the day. Far too little, though I was satisfied, but do not want to trigger starvation mode.

It can be daunting at first for a n00b like me.

(Cindy) #15

Most of the time, the best way you can is the way that works for you! :slight_smile: On this forum, you’ll find people who eat extra fat, who limit fat, who track every morsel, who don’t track anything. Some weigh every day, others never weigh. Some eat plenty of vegetables, some are carnivore. Some IF, extended fast, or don’t fast at all.

The key, I think, is to find what works for you. For example, I don’t track. I just try to keep my carbs as low as possible. Some days, that means I’m thinking about total carbs, other days it’s net. Most of the time, I don’t weigh myself…I wait to see if my clothes are any looser from week to week. Now, maybe if I were stricter in what I did (always total carbs for example), maybe I’d drop weight/get smaller faster. But then, I’d be living my life just for that goal and then if it wasn’t happening, I’d be miserable.

So for me, I find that if I can be a bit more moderate and have fun with it a bit, then if it takes a year to lose 30 lbs, I’m ok. If I’m being super strict, then it’s an entirely different (and not healthy) mindset.

You’re not a noob to you, so you need to “do you” within the general framework of keto. :smiley:

(Charlotte) #16

So here’s my deal… i’m 37, 5’7, starting weight was 248lbs. I’m 12 weeks in and down 31lbs. I started out reading, watching, analyzing everything to death. if I didn’t lose any weight 1 week I would spiral into making spreadsheets on everything I did and ate that week to figure out what happened. It would turn me into a giant ball of stress. Once I realized that my body type was highly reactive to stress, I stopped it all and told myself that I need to just let go and just go with the flow. While watching and reading the experts can help a lot of people, for me personally it was actually a hinderance. There is a lot of conflicting information out there so it can be a challenge. If I have a specific problem… then I’ll look stuff up and do some light reading, and if I get confused or can’t find the answer, then I’ll ask for help here.

It took time and playing with my macros to get the right mix for the results I wanted. I used a keto calculator to get a baseline of where to start then adjusted weekly until I found what worked for me. After playing with my numbers I learned if I eat less than 1200 calories I don’t lose weight, if I eat more than 1400 calories I gain weight. So I try to stick around 1350 calories because that seems to be my optimal calorie intake for weight loss. I have my macros set, 73g protein, 111g fat, but I don’t live and die by those numbers, I treat them like a suggestion. If I’m hungry I eat, if I’m not hungry I don’t. I also found that if I go over 15g carbs my insulin will spike and my blood ketone level drops like a brick so that is my hard limit on total carbs and I 8/16 IF. I just did trial and error to figure it out and found foods that fit into my day that I love.

Anyway… back to your original question… I listen to my body and don’t read, watch, or listen to experts with small exceptions. I have to KISS (keep it simple stupid) or else I spiral and stress and stop losing weight. This is just me though. Everyone is different.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #17

I’ve caught a number of errors in Eric Berg’s material, plus some outright crazy ideas, so I don’t consider him a trustworthy source of information. Others on these forums adore him, however.

Dr. Westman, on the other hand, is a scholar and researcher, in addition to being a clinician. He was the first researcher to take up Dr. Atkins’s challenge to investigate his case notes, so his experience with the low-carb/keto/Atkins way of eating is deep. I like how, when he gives a presentation, he refers to scientific studies and backs his assertions with data.

That commitment to the data is my main criterion for assessing someone who speaks about nutrition, and is what I respect most about the researchers I follow, whether they are trained scientists or dedicated amateurs.

#18

:rofl: Do we have a female Dexter Morgan over here? If ur looking to kill someone could u do me a favor and pay a visit to @anon54735292 :slightly_smiling_face: Also welcome and hopefully u find this lifestyle good for ya.

#19

HEY! I suspect I’m a zombie anyway so good luck :ghost:

#20

Ive watched TWD, aim for the brain @x-Dena-x .